Hello from New York City! Well, actually hello from New Jersey. I took myself across the Hudson River to Hoboken to check out a few Sinatra-inspired sights, on account of what would have been Ol’ Blue Eyes’ 100 birthday. This week has been the kick-start of awards season nominations, with the SAGs and Golden Globes nods being announced. There were quite a few suprises and snubs, but Carol scooped 5 Globe nods – with its stars Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett both scoring Best Actress noms. But at the SAGs, they’ve been separated into Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for Rooney. Also, it’s been a great year for Sweden’s Alicia…

“I’m having a really, really good night,” enthused Sam Smith, before the acceptance-speech-blowoff music started playing. It really only gave winners about 3 seconds before they were urged off the stage, to make way for the 23 performances that took place during Sunday night’s ceremony. Most of which where downbeat and languid, from Ariane Grande to Usher. Madonna tried to spark things up a bit with her glam True Detective / Maleficent stage set-up, and although she is still in top shape, it was the duets between Smith and Mary J Blige, who did an immaculate Stay With Me, and Hozier and Annie Lennox (well more Annie than Hoz, but we’ll…

Daft Punk picked up the two most coveted awards of the night: Album of the Year and Record of the Year. Add in to that Best Pop Group Performance and Best Dance Album, and the night belonged to the two French robots, plus Producer of the Year Pharrell Williams and the king of Chic Nile Rodgers. Seventeen-year-old Kiwi singer Lorde won Song of the Year, beating out Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Bruno Mars and Katy Perry. But Macklemore & Ryan Lewis still picked up Best New Artist, and three other awards in the rap category. So, that duo had a good night, too. As did the 33 couples who…

Hello from the snow-globe that is New York City! * The Sundance Film Festival is into its second week – Anne Hathaway’s new film Song One debuted on Monday, and on Tuesday night a secret screening of Lars von Trier’s controversial Nymphomaniac, which has already opened in Europe but hasn’t yet in the US, took place. More from the fest here. * Also at Sundance, Damon Albarn previewed songs off his debut solo album, Everyday Robots, which is due out in April. * Quentin Tarantino is not happy. Someone leaked the script to his new movie, The Hateful Eight, so the director says he’s not making it anymore. * There’s a new…

[Pic: courtesy of the Grammys] * Taking public transport is never dull in NYC – even more so when Macklemore & Ryan Lewis decide to perform a little snippet of their hit Can’t Hold Us. It’s all to promote the upcoming Grammys, during which the duo – along with the likes of Sara Bareilles and Carole King, John Legend, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr – will be performing. * James Cameron gave us the dates of the Avatar sequels and now he’s confirmed Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington will be heading back to Pandora for the 3 films. * Bruce Springsteen has tried something a little different for his 18th studio…